Reviews WesternAnimation / American Dad

So basically you're review brakes down to, I don't like the voices, I don't like the theme song. Yeah those are great reasons we should stay away from a show. I get that not everyone can like the characters, but then you say the dad everyone aspires to be, and not much else, in a show that basically goes on and on about how wrong Stan is about most things and sometimes throws in Roger as the dick to not get dull, in fact Stan's biggest in-universe flaw is how extremist he gets about things and overall you should see a psychiatric quick if you aspire to be like him. (or Peter, or Homer, or any protagonist in this kinds of shows)

I am glad you watched the show.

Roger has Brian tendencies? If anything, he's more like Stewie, if you must compare him to a Family Guy character (and his voice is based on the late Paul Lynde's). Why is it okay for other shows to be offensive but not this one? Hypocritical much? The only good thing about this review is that you didn't call this show a Family Guy rip-off.

Yeah I'm lost, I mean you seem to imply Lois Griffin is exciting,or somehow nicer than Francine.

Also how can you "take it" with episodes like "Family Goy" or "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven" in Family Guy,and be offended by this?!? Arguably American Dad is much less offensive,unless you so sure Family Guy actually Crosses The Line Twice like South Park which considering the 9/11 jokes (Sorry but Dude Not Funny) certainly does not.

Also while I want to agree with you on Stan,I can't because he's an extremist and as for Steve,okay his voice is annoying but he goes through enough crap to make Meg Griffin blush,even if I can't agree politically,its kind of hard not to sympathize since unlike Meg,he doesn't go insane at niceness.

Soooo, you basically have a self-imposed moral obligation to hate everything funny? Good to know.

He has the right to his opinion. If he found it offensive and doesn't want to watch, power to him. I think many people think that just because you don't like watching something offensive makes you a prude (as some responses here are implying) are missing the point. Seriously, would you call out a Jewish person for not wanting to watch the Triumph of Will? I mean, what a stick in the mud!

That said, I don't agree with the reviewer. I could take or leave American Dad, but I think it's better than Family Guy and the abominable Cleveland Show.

Actually I think you are the one missing the point, I could see that what they were saying was how those other shows, or more specially family guy who has been under a lot of controversies after the show almost got cancelled by ratings instead of executive meddling because of how they got to the point where even if you agreed with the points you hated the horrible way it was handled and preached. The author could had said that s/he found the show offensive, but s/he went on to make a comparison. I'll take your own extreme example. Would you call out a person saying When You Wish Upon a Weinstein or South Park is worst than Triumph of Will? or the ever so popular Godwin'sLaw

"Why is it okay for other shows to be offensive but not this one? Hypocritical much?"

Or, you know, the reviewer was implying that one is far more offensive than the other, and that there is such a thing as "too offensive".

That should be the main criticism. I think American Dad is a terrible show which takes all the worst from Family Guy and magnifies it. It seems like a show that deliberately goes down the offensive route, because it hasn't the material or the gags to fill the time. I don't like offensiveness, for offensive sake, and I don't like offensiveness in the place of humour in a comedy show. Just being an affront to the audience is not a laugh within itself.

Exactly.

why didn't you address "any" (at.all) of the other comments, just the single one who sort of agreed with you on something? Saying flame me flamers over and over doesn't make everyone who disagrees with you a blind fan.

What can I say? I am 100% speechless on how some people go insanely nuts (ok, well now I am addressing them too) over a show review that doesn't praise American Dad as the awesomest thing since sliced bread. I'm lost between the blind fans and the nay-blinders because the blind fans take up most of this whining over my reasons for hating it. Yes, this review was late at night at the time I wrote it, so I couldn't flesh it out more. Give me a break.

What can I say? I am 100% speechless on how some people go insanely nuts (ok, well now I am addressing them too) over a show review that doesn't praise American Dad as the awesomest thing since sliced bread. I'm lost between the blind fans and the nay-blinders because the blind fans take up most of this whining over my reasons for hating it. Yes, this review was late at night at the time I wrote it, so I couldn't flesh it out more. Give me a break.

So basically anyone who disagrees with you is a blind, fan? cute. I don't even like the show that much and I could see the mayor flaws in what you said, like the whole the dad everyone aspires to be, and not much else thing I myself pointed out at the beggining or your emphasis on how you shouldn't watch a show just because you don't like the voices, or how you didn't simply call the show offensive (which no one can deny it can be), but went to say it was more offensive than other shows, even when it still hasn't seen nearly the level of controversy in that regard as Family Guy the one you used as an example. But I digress, all this is pointless since you seem to think everyone who doesn't agree with your way of thinking is simply an idiot blind flamer.

American Dad is all about satirizing American cultural and political views. The point isn't to offend as much as it's to point out the stupidity of certain facets of culture that are often taken for granted.

In effect, American Dad is to Family Guy as The Colbert Report is to The Daily Show.

@barryf The latter seasons of American Dad aren't very political at all in my opinion. Personally, I quite like American Dad because to me it takes out a lot of the annoying parts that Family Guy had (show-stealing author soapboxes and pointless random cutaways), and having distinct plot to it as well. But still, there is nothing wrong with someone not liking it.

Exactly,and American Dad never made offensive Dude Not Funny 9/11 jokes

And the conservative people in American Dad are seen more as Well Intentioned Extremists than idiotic terrorists. Look at Stan Smith,then compare him to the Texans in Family Guy. It's obvious who comes off better

And I'm an anti-conservative and even I want the opposing ideology put in a better light,which Family Guy never did

It's not that we're blind fans. There are well-written reviews and badly-written reviews. Unfortunately, your review falls into the second category.

"He has the right to his opinion."

Was anyone violating or denying that right?

never thought I would see Irrelevant Thesis being done to an American Dad review page.

Being offensive is ok until I can't take it anymore.

Sure.

Sidenote: There seems to be this thing going on where people get offended by jokes made to defend them. If you mocked the Nazis by satirically stating "The Jews are evil", Jewish people get offended instead.

Yeah, one thing that confuses me about your review... You say it's more offensive than Family Guy? Sorry, I just can't see that. American Dad! does make some race jokes every now and then, but have you seen Family Guy lately? They've been Crossing The Line Twice a LOT lately. American Dad! is rather tame compared to it.

Id say this is actually the least offensive Mc Farlen show. At least they treat the other cultures and what not with respect. Sure Stan doesznt but thats the point. Hes wrong to think that way and learns it in the end.

^^^ Maybe that's because mocking the Nazis by satirically saying "The Jews are evil" isn't funny. It's just pure, humourless shock value. Maybe if you made some remark about the Jews causing problems and sarcastically talk about a bunch of stuff that very clearly wasn't caused by Jews, it could be somewhat amusing, but just saying "The Jews are evil" is simply not any kind of humour. Also, "being offensive is ok until I can't take it anymore" is a perfectly reasonable statement.

I think a problem with Family Guy is that, while toned down in terms of vulgarity and out and out apathy in comparison, it perhaps overplays how much so it is, and tries to place legitimate Aesops and sentiment more than the setup can really ask for. The characters do have likable qualities, but as you put, most of them fall deeply into Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist or outright Comedic Sociopath territory. It's hard to have them give genuine lessons and pedestals without a lot of hypocrisy being put into it (thankfully some is deliberate and Played For Laughs, but not always).

Also another problem is that most of the Aesops are directed towards Stan, which not only means his personality is driven by Aesop Amnesia and falling victim to endless Compressed Vices and Jerkass Balls, but the other characters usually get to act ten times worse than Stan and have no development from it. Hayley was designed to be a parody of a left wing, basically Stan but even more hypocritical and pretentious, but the problem is, since she is always his moral superior, there is no point to that role.

IMO, the difference between Family Guy and American Dad is that Family Guy tries to be as offensive as possible while American Dad crosses the line by accident.

And I'm not sure which one is more irritating about it because of that.

Also, the "sympathetic" portrayal of conservatives on American Dad is really more artificial than real, seeing as the only time they are really put into a remotely sympathetic light is when they take liberal positions on an issue and when they don't they're remorseless terrorists.

I admit I find it funny so many fans despise Brian with a passion yet have no problem with Hayley, despite more consistently pumping Liberal views and being made a clear moral victor over Stan. Yeah, there's some Hypocritical Humor in the matter, but it rarely effects the final Aesop and even at Brian's worst there were several points they admitted he was full of crap.

@Psi001:

That's because Hayley's political leanings have been majorly downplayed in recent seasons, to the point where they almost aren't part of the show at all. And unlike Brian, it's almost always played for laughs when it is brought up.